Perfect psychology AP exam taker honored at Spring-Ford meeting

Amanda Jurewicz speaks at a Spring-Ford Area School Board meeting. Jurewicz was the only student in the world in 2012 who recieved a perfect score on her Advanced Placement psychology exam. Her teacher, Susan Miscavage, right, looks on.

ROYERSFORD — To find the student who achieved the only perfect score in the world on the Advanced Placement Psychology exam, you won’t have to go very far.

That’s because Amanda Jurewicz is a Spring-Ford Area High School student.

Late last year, word was officially released that Jurewicz was the only student who was flawless on her exam out of more than 220,000 issued world-wide.

“(Jurewicz) is, hands-down, one of the best students I’ve ever taught in my 14-year career,” said Susan Miscavage, the high school’s psychology teacher.

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Miscavage spoke at the Spring-Ford Area School Board workshop meeting where Jurewicz was recognized Tuesday.

Over the summer, when the grades are tabulated for the 100 multiple choice-question, two-essay exam, rumors came out that there was a perfect test, but the student who scored it was unknown at the time.

Still, Miscavage heard rumors that it might have been one of her students and said she made multiple calls to figure out when the results might come out.

Eventually, it was confirmed that Jurewicz was the student.

“She is such a dedicated student and always has that question, thirst for knowledge and makes my job even better than it already is,” Miscavage said. “Teaching students like Amanda is a rewarding experience.”

The fact that Jurewicz’s test came out perfectly was remarkable because of how difficult the 2012 exam was, Miscavage said.

“Last year, we received the essays back and I’m part of a teaching psychology blog,” she said. “The teachers were off-the-charts upset about the actual question because ... each year they try to pick something that will throw us off and they picked such an ambiguous term that we were very concerned that our students wouldn’t even score a point.”

“This is even a bigger accomplishment knowing what Amanda was faced with,” Miscavage continued.

During the period of uncertainty where it was known that a Spring-Ford student scored perfectly but who it was was not released, Jurewicz said some friends suspected she was the one.

Jurewicz thanked the school district for giving students the opportunity to take AP exams.

“Without offering all these hard courses you can’t have students who achieve great things.

The majority of the students who took the exam with Jurewicz at Spring-Ford also fared well, according to Mascavage. Forty-seven of the 63 students earned a 4 or a 5, which count toward college credit at most schools.

For that, Jurewicz also credited Miscavage.

“I absolutely couldn’t have done any of this without her,” Jurewicz said.